180 Degree Rule

First location shoot 180 Degree rule

Our first location shoot took place only a stones throw away from the TV Studios, but introduced us to some of the real-world issues that might be encountered when working on in the industry. Having no prior knowledge of the area where we were shooting and no prior planning of what we were going to shoot, we had only basic parameters set; we should shoot a meeting and we should demonstrate the 180 degree rule. Though in groups of four, we decided that we would split into duo’s and create our ideas so that we all had the opportunity to have some ‘hands-on’ time with the equipment. Sam Keel and I decided that we would shoot a Western style meeting, relying on pre-existing tropes to inform our shot choices and Character direction. Although the purpose of the shoot was to demonstrate the 180 degree rule, we were aware that some genres broke this rule at times, Western being one of them. We knowingly broke the rule, but I believe that the finished product is still cohesive and the breaking of the rule doesn’t break the viewer immersion. I was happy with the finished product, but I do acknowledge that I’d like to get some more practise working on the 180 degree rule and that I’d like to work on producing interesting non-stationary shot types and understand how the rule is applied when Characters move in scene.